MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

8/13 Extra bases

* Top prospect Jorge Soler, sidelined since June 14 with a stress fracture in his left tibia, most likely will not rejoin Class A Daytona this season, but still could play in the Arizona Fall League. Soler, 21, was examined Monday in Mesa, Ariz., where he is rehabbing, and the test results were sent to Chicago. Theo Epstein said the early reports show that Soler still needs time to heal and his leg will remain in a boot. The Arizona Fall League begins Oct. 8.

* First-round pick Kris Bryant and Dan Vogelbach, a second-round selection in 2011, were both promoted to Class A Daytona, with Bryant making the biggest leap from short-season Boise.

“In Bryant’s case, we wanted him to shake the rust off in short-season ball and get him adjusted to what life in pro baseball is like,” Epstein said. “He started out a little rough, that 0-for-5 [in first game with] five [strikeouts], but it was just a matter of getting his timing back. For the last week or so he’s just been locked in. … He had nothing much left to do at that level.”

Bryant, ranked No. 4 among the Cubs’ top 20 prospects, was named the Northwest League Player of the Week on Monday, going 9-for-17 with three doubles, one triple, a home run and five RBIs in five games.

The Cubs wanted Jeimer Candelario to continue to get regular playing time at third base at low A Kane County, plus Daytona is headed for the playoffs, which is also why Bryant was added along with Vogelbach, ranked No. 11 on the Cubs’ top 20 prospects list.

“[Vogelbach] has been pretty consistent driving the baseball and getting on base and he’s working hard on his defense,” Epstein said. “We felt it made sense for him to move up at this time.”

“We don’t want to clutter the locker room with people who aren’t going to play but [add] people who we want to see and get their feet wet and get some playing time before next season,” Sveum said.

* There are no plans to have Junior Lake play anywhere but outfield with the Cubs for the rest of this season. Lake came up as an infielder, but when he was called up from Triple-A Iowa, he was inserted into the outfield because of injuries.

“Right now, with our personnel, he’s not playing third base,” Sveum said.

* Scott Baker begins his second rehab stint, with hopes of getting into a Major League game next month. Baker is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Rain interrupted his scheduled starts.

Brilliant!! Watkins plays for the first time in a week, comes off the bench not having many At Bats and it gets thrown in joey’s face. There are lots of fans down on Barney and yes, Rizzo & Castro also.
I still say the teaching of Deer should be looked in too, all three are having horrible seasons and Deer is a new hitting coach this year.

Yes he did White, a miracle, I agree. Let me know when he plays a whole month and then we can have a better discussion on his skills etc. I think you may want to brace for the departure of our beloved Barney as surely his limited offense can’t be accepted another season don’t you think?

As I was saying joey aren’t you glad that Watkins played the whole game today? I thought that you would be pleased that Sveum is using the new comers as you have been wanting him to. Murphy and now Watkins. Now you can see what they can do! I imagine they will get a lot more playing time this late in the season. Oh and by the way – the only thing I would throw in your face would be a yummy brownie – our special Oregon recipe ! :))

I understand White, no harm done. We are in some trying times that’s for sure and part of these times include the realization that Barney is not up to being a full time player but a late defensive specialist and occasional sub. Whether it be Watkins or some other call up or player acquired via trade 2B must be upgraded as much as 3B and the outfield. You threw nothing my friend, blessings.

Typical Dale. His logic makes no sense. “with our personnel”, as if third base has been handled well all year. Overall, the team is hitting .222 at third base, fourth worst in all of baseball. Lake has ONLY been an infielder his entire time with the organization, yet call him up and have him play somewhere else while we continue to struggle (generous choice of words) at HIS POSITION. And DS’s reasoning …. “our personnel”. unbelieveable.

I agree. He comes across as a hypocrite at times. He recently said something to the effect that Rizzo being a number 3 hitter is expected to do more as far as run production is concerned (I am NOT quoting here, this was in the paper a week or so ago…) calling him out in the paper yet all of April and May when Soriano (THE CLEAN UP HITTER, talk about run production???) was AWOL Sveum had no remarks for his TOTAL LACK OF PRODUCTION, instead giving him a pass EVERY DAY just waiting for June to roll around. Sveum is fooling only the few, not the knowledgeable. His biggest fan may be Mike Quade.

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